Ask Elliot

[pizzamancer]

Can I come to your camp for free beer?

[Elliot]

Who needs a roof rack - I have bungee cords. I always arrive with at least 60% of my load still on the roof Dear Elliot - how tight should I stretch the bungee cords?

To get maximum efficiency from a bungee cord, hook it at arm's length so you can aim straight down the length of the cord, then pull it towards you. When your eye disappears, you pulled it just a little too much, so back off five percent to perfection.

[Elliot]

Can I come to your camp for free beer?

You probably can. And what's more, you MAY!

[Martiansky]

Dear Elliot,
First and foremost, thank you for the hugs, at the MnG and right before my sister and I headed down the long road to exodus!

Second, having not met you in person before this year and only seeing a picture from I think last year, you look fantastic!
Would you please enlighten me on the method you have used to lose weight?

Thank you!

[Elliot]

Hmmm... all right... Thank you! ... So we are stepping out of the usual flippant mode and talking turkey. Actually, LESS turkey -- and other foods. We might call this a guest appearance of the Fitness Club thread.

Thank you indeed! A recap may be in order: 31 years ago I weighed 175 pounds when I took up trucking as my vocation. Trucking is unhealthy, and I peaked at 230 before I retired a few years ago. Then I spent a couple of years yo-yoing between 200 and 220 -- the "ePlaya Fitness Club" period. Now I'm 185. Only ten more to go!

What has worked for me is to eat less, eat healthier, and exercise more. Surprise! But we all know this is easier said than done. Here are a couple of the tricks that seem to work for me:

Every morning I walk a couple of miles to buy the newspaper. I could subscribe of course, but this "forces" me to walk.

I buy gazillions of little cups of low-fat and non-fat yogurt -- cheaply at the local Grocery Outlet. Any time I feel like eating -- yogurt.

Salads. Also at the scratch-n-dent grocery store, bags of salads. I just snack out of the bags as if it were corn chips. No dressing. Favorite: Dole Very Veggie.

No bread. No ice cream. I violate these two occasionally, but apparently not enough to matter much.

Mixed nuts. I buy it in bulk at Safeway and eat just a few a day. Tasty, and very healthy. Nuts create a craving for milk, so...

Skim milk. AKA fat free milk. I happen to prefer it and truly like it, so I drink quite a bit of it very happily.

El Monterrey frozen burritos. Probably not healthy, but satisfying and I usually eat only one.

Bananas. I love bananas. Ripe.

Apples, strawberries, peaches. etc etc.

I never put salt or sugar on anything. Luckily, I was raised this way.

Other foods also, of course. But all in small portions.

Water. I recently read about some possible issues with the local tap water, so I drink bottled water in 1 gallon jugs. The jugs also help me make sure I drink lots of it. Even good water tastes a little blah, so I often add just a dash of... juice, Gatorade, lemonade... pretty much anything to give it a tinge of flavor. Favorite: Gallon of lemonade at Safeway for one dollar. With just a splash of lemonade in each glass, a gallon lasts a week.

Oh, and exercises. I do some prescribed exercises for my sore back and such, but also some general belly-crunching and push-ups and such. I need to do more of this.

There is probably more I could mention, but now I'm hungry.

It doesn't seem to matter if I eat three or four cups of yogurt. What matters is that I don't eat half a loaf of bread with butter and thick slabs of Norwegian goat milk cheese.

Again, thank you for the kind words. I feel great, so the slight deprivation of sweet breads, ice cream, and such is very much worth it.

Now back to our regularly scheduled snarky wisdom.

[Ratty]

Fruit yogurt mixed with cottage cheese tastes just like ice cream. (Well kind of). Frozen yogurt cups can 'sub' for ice cream. Oh hell! I want ice cream.

[tinymystic]

Elliot It's working!

Oh hell! I want ice cream.

LOL... me too!

[AntiM]

That sounds an awful lot like what I eat... down to the El Monterrey burrito now and then. Except I cannot get started without whole grain toast in the morning. I have tried so many other foods as breakfast, fruit, smoothies, oatmeal, cereal, eggs... I am always hungry all day unless I've had my toast.

I don't eat much yogurt, dairy gives me fits past a couple ounces, except hard cheese. A shame, I do love milk and such.

[unjonharley]

My seniors adviser put me in a feed the old fart program..

They have sent vouchers for fresh veggies from the local farm market

enough for three months.. Guess what I will be chowing down on..

[Elliot]

When I was a child in Norway, I would sometimes eat slices of raw potato as a snack. No wonder I'm so strong and handsome now!